On a recent vacation, a copy of the popular best seller, "The Da Vinci Code" was left in our chalet along with a small selection of other books. I'm not sure if they were left by previous holidaymakers who had finished them and decided to leave them behind or if it was a policy of the holiday company to provide its guests with some light reading for those guaranteed, British rainy days in.
I hadn't read the book previously but I had sort of snoozed through the movie, (Really, what was Tom Hanks thinking?) so I thought I might just use one of those grey days to give the book a chance, after all, movies of books have a seriously bad reputation.
As it happens, the book was a revelation, although not at all in the way expected. The book, which was the well read, pages curling up, slightly stale smoke smelling paperback edition was nestled on the coffee table next to the sofa. The chalet was a luxurious log cabin affair, situated in pretty fields on old, converted, farm land.
Adjacent to the cabin was a small paddock with horses in it and despite the weather not being terrific, it was still summer and there were still flies swarming around the horses. Inevitably, some of those flies became adventurous and began hunting human prey and more specifically, my head!
"THWACK", Da Vinci claimed his first of several afternoon victims without a page being turned. The headcount was impressive but the fly carcasses had made the prospect of reading the book even less appetising than a host of previous readers' second hand, cigarette smoke.
As the week wore on, the temperature dipped, windows were closed and that signalled the beginning of a fly famine and the code that was Da Vinci's became redundant once more. Not to worry though book fans, our bed had developed a sudden uneven limp and it was decided we should give the book a bit of a wipe down and attempt to stabilise the wobbly bed with its trusty pages. A great success indeed, as the book provided much more even and comfortable sleep for the remnants of the vacation.
The weather continued its erratic, topsy-turvy behaviour, bringing glorious sunshine for the last couple of days. The miraculous paperback had just enough time to pull its last rabbit out of its hat as it developed multi tasking skills. Fly swatting had resumed, bed stabilising was ongoing and its coup de grace was supreme door stopping, perfectly wedging beneath the outside door, allowing entry for a gentle but most welcome breeze.
A hat-trick of heroics, I think you will agree and for its reliability and dog eared doggedness, I have to award Mr Da Vinci's Code a stellar 9 out of 10! I still haven't read the book, but in my humble opinion it's by far superior to its celluloid incarnation.
|
tweet this!
